Neill McNeill

Evening News Anchor

Neill McNeill is doing exactly what he's always wanted to do where he's wanted to do it. 2015 will mark his 32nd year of doing it at WGHP in North Carolina's Piedmont-Triad.

He co-anchors WGHP's 5:00pm, 6:00pm, 6:30pm, and 10:00pm newscasts. He also reports and produces "Newsmakers." These are extended, edited interview segments featuring local movers and shakers as well as others who have been in the news or have influenced the news.

Neill is a native North Carolinian. He grew up in Raeford (near Fayetteville) and is a 1979 graduate of Hoke County High School.

He arrived at WGHP in October 1983 upon graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures. While a student at UNC, he reported and anchored at WKFT-TV in Fayetteville as both a student intern and part-time employee.

At WGHP, Neill has served in many capacities: general assignment reporter (1983-85), anchor of the morning and noon newscasts (1985-86), co-anchor of the weekend newscasts (1986-87), co-anchor of the 11:00pm newscasts (1988-1995 while WGHP was an ABC affiliate), one of the original co-anchors of the 5:00pm newscast (1990-present), co-anchor of the 6:00pm newscast (2001-present); and one of the original co-anchors of the 10:00pm newscast (when WGHP became a FOX affiliate in 1995). In February of 2014, he became one of the original co-anchors of the 6:30pm newscast.

He has also been WGHP's consumer reporter, Wednesday's Child reporter (profiling area foster children in need of adoption), and executive producer of special projects.

Neill has won awards for his reporting, and newscasts he's co-anchored have won regional Emmys for best newscast and breaking news.

In the community, he's served as an advisory board member and volunteer with several local charities. He's been the co-host of the FOX 8 Holiday Concert Series with the Greensboro and Winston-Salem Symphonies since its inception in the late 1980s. He's also a frequent master of ceremonies/keynote speaker for area events as well as a Sunday School teacher at church.

Outside of work, Neill is married to a family practice physician. They are the parents of two daughters. He enjoys running (between 16 and 20 miles a week), still photography and spending time with family.

Neill believes his purpose as a broadcast journalist is three-fold: to seek the truth and report it accurately, to be fair, and to be compassionate.

Recent Articles

GREENSBORO, N.C. — She has one of the Piedmont’s most powerful and memorable voices, and she’s taken the music industry by storm. Rolling Stone magazine calls her “one of the most promising voices in American roots music.” Rhiannon Giddens, her husband and two children split their time between Greensboro and his native Ireland. This summer and early fall, she’s on tour performing in places such as Australia, the United Kingdom and across the United States. “For me, it’s always been,” […]

CARY, N.C. — He’s young (not even 40-years-old), bright, energetic and the key person when it comes to bringing new jobs to North Carolina. What he and his team do over the next few years will have a direct link to the quality of your life and the lives of your children. Christopher Chung’s parents came to the United States from Taiwan. He was born, raised and educated in Ohio. From 2010 to 2014, he helped recruit 78 new companies […]

GREENSBORO, N.C. — All of us like to pull for the underdog. For Irish Spencer, it’s a passion, especially when it comes to putting the Piedmont back to work and to community service. She started out in radio in Greensboro working her way up from on-air work to sales to even station management. It’s an occupation still close to her heart. In fact, you can hear her every Saturday at noon playing “old school” R&B on 90.1 FM WNAA “The […]

GREENSBORO, N.C. — He just loves being out on the road. For most of his life, he’s been getting behind the wheels of trucks. Today, he’s working to get more people in the driver’s seats. Karl Robinson is the president of R&R Transportation, a company he started with his father 25 years ago. He’s watched it grow from a single pickup truck to a firm that rolls eight tractors, more than 40 trailers and several other smaller vehicles. He and […]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — He’s the host of the largest Memorial Day weekend party in the United States. We’re talking well more than 100,000 people in North Carolina’s largest sports venue. The venue’s been around more than 55 years and is a critical part of the Piedmont economic and recreational history. For the last 42 years, Marcus Smith has been a part of it. In other words, he’s been a part of it all his life. Today, he’s the president and […]

SURRY COUNTY, N.C. — Bill Cowan doesn’t want to slow down. When I spoke with him a few days ago, he was already planning another trip to two of the world’s most troubled and volatile countries: Libya and Somalia. He still has friends in both regions working to resolve problems. And he feels he can still help. Cowan, after all, is an internationally-recognized authority in several areas: terrorism, homeland security, intelligence and military special operations. That reputation flows out of […]

GREENSBORO, N.C. — It would be hard to name a person in the Piedmont-Triad who has a more diverse list of interests than Roy Carroll. He’s already among the region’s largest land owners and among the largest developers and builders of homes and apartments in the Carolinas. Six years ago, I featured Carroll in a Newsmaker segment as he was renovating his $40-plus million Center Pointe Tower in downtown Greensboro into luxury apartments. Recently I met him in his own […]

GREENSBORO, N.C. — She describes her professional career as being like a small tugboat navigating the waters alongside some very big ships. She’s one of the only African-American women to run a for-profit development firm. That’s not bad in an industry full of heavy-hitting, experienced and wealthy people. Evon Smith is now a key figure in one of the largest and most dynamic projects of its type in Greensboro: the Union Square/South Elm Development Group initiative just south of downtown. […]

GREENSBORO, N.C. — When it comes to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in downtown Greensboro, no one carries as much influence as Skip Alston. Most will agree, without his foresight and hard work, the place probably wouldn’t have opened five years ago. Although he’s no longer chairman of the museum’s board, he’s still a member and very active in the museum’s fundraising and day-to-day operations. In all the recent controversy about the museum’s finances, who should run the […]

BOONE, N.C. — The Reverend Franklin Graham: he’s honest, dedicated, faithful, outspoken, controversial. He’s also an evangelist, best-selling author, businessman, and a tireless international relief worker. You could also argue he’s inherited his father’s reputation of being the closest thing to a moral compass this country has right now. Recently, I spent some time with him at the Samaritan’s Purse Headquarters in Boone. Not surprisingly, he was very candid about some of the big issues facing our country and our world. […]

GREENSBORO, N.C. — In less than a month, we’ll celebrate the 55th anniversary of the beginning of the sit-in movement in Greensboro. It was the time when four North Carolina A&T State University students sat down at the segregated lunch counter in the Woolworth’s Five and Dime Store in downtown Greensboro and stayed there. Many believe it started the Civil Rights Movement across the south. Up until about two months ago, Lacy Ward ran the International Civil Rights Center and […]

FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. — Joey Medaloni has turned over a new leaf, or maybe we should say “vine.” Today, he runs what is now Forsyth County’s only commercial winery. In his tasting room at Medaloni Cellars off Shallowford Road near Lewisville, customers can sample the 13 different types of wine he makes. The winery is about a year old. “We try to take our 10 years in hospitality and blend it with making the best wines,” he told me during […]